Understanding
by nightlyroses
Summary: Harry and Professor Black (fem!married!Severus) have a talk after he sees her worst memory. Harry later confronts Sirius and Lupin about what he saw. NOT Harry/fem!Severus. Slight canon Marauders!bashing and Lily!bashing. Companion piece to "Exposed."


**AN:** Please read "Exposed" before reading this to get a better understanding! Thank you!

* * *

Harry was still paralysed with shock and horror as Professor Black dragged him out of the Pensieve. He couldn't believe it. How could his father and his friends do something like that? It was utterly evil. He didn't even bother wasting any anger on the fact that Professor Black had called his mother a Mudblood. He always exploded at his friends whenever he was angry about something, and Professor Black had a bigger excuse than he did.

"What's wrong with you?!"

Harry snapped himself out of his thoughts. Professor Black was glowering darkly at him, anger and humiliation written all over her face. It was hard to believe that she was the girl he witnessed being bullied by his own father. All he knew before was that the professor was a really nasty woman who hated him for no reason except for his father. Now…he understood why. What woman would want to see the spitting image of the person who tried to take off her underpants in front of everyone?

"I'm waiting, Potter!"

Harry blinked. He hadn't realized he spaced out again. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He didn't know what to say.

"Disappointed that your father's not the great wizard everyone's been telling you about?" Professor Black sneered. "Well, guess what, Potter! Life's filled with disappointments! Get used to it!"

Harry shook his head. Disappointed, yes, but it was more than that. He felt…betrayed. Not just by his father but his mother too. His father had been a monster in that memory. And his mother let him. He saw it all. His mother just walked from a helpless student in need just because she was called a name. A horrible name, yes, but still. Besides, his mother called the professor Melonhead so she really didn't have an excuse anymore.

Professor Black was still glaring at him. Harry cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Professor. That my parents behaved so awfully to you. What my father did to you was horrible. Even more horrible than anything my relatives did to me."

She stared at him, startled. Harry cringed. Was she going to snap at him for giving her pity? Was she going to call him a liar? Whatever she was going to do, he wasn't sure he was going to like it.

What she _did_ do next, however, was quite the surprise. "Sit down, Potter."

Harry blinked. She was speaking to him, obviously. But the tone in her voice was unlike anything he ever heard from her. For once, she wasn't sneering. Or demanding. It was more like…a request. Not wanting to anger the professor, he quickly complied.

Professor Black paced back and forth in front of him with her lips pursed. Finally, without looking at him, she said, "Potter, what are your relatives like?"

Harry widened his eyes. Did she just ask him that? "They don't like me. They think I'm a freak like my mum."

Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "How do they treat you?"

"I have to do most of the chores around the house. I don't get to eat much. Dudley used to please himself by bullying me."

"'Used to'?"

"He got scared off when he learned that I was a wizard. It didn't help that Hagrid gave him a pig's tail."

She snorted. "That oaf isn't supposed to use magic. What was he thinking?"

"He was really mad because Uncle Vernon insulted Dumbledore."

"And their treatment of you wasn't enough to set him off?"

"…he didn't really know. He was more angry about the fact that they hid my wizarding identity from me for the past ten years."

"So they treated you like you were nothing more than a house-elf?"

"…basically."

She sighed and stopped pacing as if she were contemplating something. Harry shifted in his seat. He hadn't really told anyone about his relatives' treatment of him before. His friends were aware that the Dursleys were nasty people, but they didn't really know the extent. He still didn't understand why Dumbledore insisted he stay there every summer.

Professor Black walked over to her desk and sat on it. Still not looking at him she said, "I met your father and that mu – Black – on the first train ride. Your mother and I lived in the same area, and we met a while before then. I was a lonely outcast in a poor family, and then I saw your mother. She was performing accidental magic. I knew then that finally I found someone like me. A witch. And it was up to me to tell her everything I knew about the Wizarding world. But then there was the issue with your aunt. If you had any notions about her not always being so bad, think again. Petunia and I detested each other, nearly to the same extent as your father and I. She was jealous. That Lily was a witch and she wasn't."

Harry was surprised. His aunt never really hated his "freakish" abilities? It was only because it was something she couldn't have? Wait, if Professor Black told his mother about the Wizarding, then – "You were the girl who told my mother about dementors. Aunt Petunia overheard you back then and told Uncle Vernon what they were the night Dudley and I were attacked."

"Yes, I was. Apparently, Petunia _can't_ get rid of all her knowledge of the Wizarding world. As it was, your mother and I were best friends. You could probably tell from that _memory_ –" She gave him a withering look. "– since she was the only one who bothered to stand up for me against your father."

"But she didn't try hard enough," Harry said. "She stopped my dad and Sirius for only a moment until you called her that name, and then she walked off."

Professor Black laughed bitterly. "Oh yes. One of my biggest mistakes yet. I call her a horrible name, and she leaves me with two boys who tried to undress me in public!"

"Why didn't she stop them?" Harry asked.

"I honestly don't know. I guess she was more mad about me betraying her than anything else."

Harry took a deep breath. He had to know. "Did my dad and Sirius…succeed in what they were about to do?"

"Thank Merlin, no. It turned out they were only joking, or so they said to Professor McGonagall. As much as I hate them for it, I think deep down a part of me believes that they never would have done it."

Harry looked down at his shoes. "Sirius told me during the summer how you were related to him. You married his younger brother Regulus."

She stiffened at the mention of her dead husband. "Legally, we may be related. Personally, I don't call him family."

"…I wouldn't blame you."

A long silence settled over them. Professor Black sat still on the desk with her back straight, her eyes looking off to the distance. Harry fidgeted in his chair, looking at his shoes. Both were thinking carefully on the new information they learned from each other. It was only after five minutes that the professor dismissed Harry for the night. "You are excused, Mr Potter. Please practice before our next lesson. I will know if you do not."

"Yes, Professor," Harry replied, heading out for the door.

"And Mr Potter?"

Harry stopped and turned around to face Professor Black. "Yes, Professor?"

"I would prefer if no one knew about this little…talk we had. Not even Mr Weasley or Miss Granger."

"All right, Professor."

* * *

"How could you do that to Professor Black?" Harry asked, hurt filling his voice.

Sirius and Lupin traded worried looks before looking back at him. "What are you talking about, Harry?" Sirius asked, though his voice gave away slight fear.

Harry quickly explained what happened with him witnessing the memory of the Marauders bullying Professor Black. He omitted the conversation he had later. When he was finished, both Sirius and Lupin looked horrified and guilty. "Please explain how you could've done something so abhorrent. How you were okay with my dad about to take a defenceless girl's underwear off of her."

"I told him to stop," Lupin said hoarsely. "I really did. But I downplayed it so much she screamed at me for being a pushover. I never wanted so much before to speak out against James ever in my life. And then he said he was joking so I was kind of relieved that I didn't say anything."

"You should have," Harry said firmly.

"He didn't say he didn't regret not saying a word," Sirius said. "We were awful people, Harry, we know that. I was really hoping to never have to hear of that incident again. As much as a bint Melanie Snape had been towards us, she didn't deserve what we gave her."

"You still call her by her maiden name."

"It's kind of awkward having your worst nemesis share the same surname as you."

"And what about my mother? She left her best friend in the clutches of two bullies because she was insulted in a fit of humiliation and anger!"

Lupin sighed. "It's a bit more complicated than that, Harry. Professor Black was one of those Slytherins who were sort of like Death-Eaters-in-training. We Marauders were very opposed to those of that sort. So was Lily. The friendship between Professor Black and Lily strained over time as their interests differed greatly – especially for the alignments of good and evil. Using an insult for her Muggle heritage was the final straw. I'm not saying that what Lily did was exactly a good idea, but she had her reasons."

Harry frowned thoughtfully. Maybe he could bring this up to Professor Black. But there was something else bothering him. "I noticed how my parents were behaving around each other. My mother seemed to hate my dad because what he did to people. How did they get married?"

Sirius and Lupin then went on to explain the changing relationship between Lily and James that led to their loving marriage until footsteps disrupted their conversation. Harry looked behind the two men. "Is that Kreacher coming downstairs?"

"No," Sirius said, looking behind himself. "It must be someone on your end."

Harry paled with fear. "Gotta go!"

He quickly pulled his head out from the fireplace and covered himself with the Invisibility Cloak.

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 **AN 2:** Reviews are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance to those who do!


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